Romania's drama festival to rehabilitate prison inmates

Dan, 35, an inmate of Bucharest's Rahova, has been in prison for three years after being found guilty of drug-dealing offences. He is to be released in eight months. Theatre 'helps you a lot in life, to control yourself, to know yourself better, because you have to go from one mood to the other, to read, to analyse yourself a bit,' he says. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

Bucharest, Romania - Men and women from six prisons in Romania condemned for crimes such as drug-dealing, theft, attempted murder and tax evasion, took to the stage of one of Bucharest's leading theatres as part of the MultiArt Festival for Inmates.

In its seventh year, the festival tries to help the process of reintegration into society as prisoners approach their release date.

The main goal of the festival is for the public to meet the inmates and overcome their prejudices.

Before her death, Dana Cenusa, the project's founder, famously said: "The inmates don't belong to the prison, the society is the one that gives birth to crime, it's the one that maintains it and is the only one that can fix this … there are a lot of people in the penitentiary who are young, who are very poor, who are condemned for theft, who are uneducated. There should be more attention, energy and money spent on education, and then people would have the tools to give them the opportunity to make better choices."

For the past two months, inmates have worked together with directors, actors and teachers to prepare plays such as Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

To be eligible to take part in the plays, inmates must first pass an audition. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

Inmates from six prisons were taking part in the festival's seventh season. Six days after its finish, the theatre where it was held, and which had stood for 55 years, was closed down. The move, which affected other theatres, cinemas and bars in the capital, was due to new regulations introduced after a club fire in October left 59 dead. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

Prisoners perform in a pantomime and improvisation show on the second day of the festival in the Nottara Theatre. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

Two inmates from Bacau prison perform a play called 'Nothing New about Shakespeare'. They and three other cast members were selected from 200 women in the prison. 'I think we found ourselves in the characters we are performing, and it breaks the daily routine', one said. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

Inmates from Craiova prison, west of Bucharest, took part in a play with characters based on old Romanian fairy tales in which the good and evil characters, instead of fighting, had to reach a peaceful settlement. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

Prisoners from Bucharest's Jilava jail rehearse a play based on military service which opened the festival. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

'You forget for a short while that you are in prison', one inmate said. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

'It takes off the mask, you are natural. You try to give up on who you want to be and you are yourself. You don't pretend, you don't hide any more, you try to give up on inhibitions,' an inmate performing in a pantomime show said. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

Actors from the theatre world helped to prepare prisoners for their performances by passing on the skills of their craft and boosting their confidence. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

'For the inmates, this is a way to make them free. Theatre cuts the closed horizon and opens a gate towards the society that is waiting for them, and that, I am sure, is ready to see something else from them,' Inspector Simona Melescanu from Bacau Prison said. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

Inmates from Craiova prison perform in a play with characters based on Romanian fairy tales. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

The festival aims to help people in the prison system in a reintegration process leading up to their release. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

Prisoners from Jilava prison perform in a play about army life, during the festival. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]

Men and women from six Romanian prisons took part in the festival at Bucharest's Nottara Theatre. [Andreea Campeanu/Al Jazeera]